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DOCOBENT BENNE

PS 009 521

Kpefer.; Constance H.; And -OthersThe Structure` of Infant-Adult Social Reciprocity. ACross Cultural Study of Face to Fac4 Interaction:Gusii Infants and Mcthers." -

Grant Foundation, New fork, N.Y.;-Aational Science-Foundation, Washington, 'D.C.; Robert ithoh JohnsonFoundation, New Srunswick, N.J. 4

Mar,7714p.;'Paper ptesented at the Biennial,Meeting of theSociety for qesearch in Child Developaent (N.Orleans, 'Louisiana, Mardi 17 -20, 1977) ; Be* py-a/ailable

EDRS PRICE, NF -$0.83 HC$1.67 Plus Postage.DESCRIPTORS Behavior Change; Behavidr Rating. Scales; *Cross.

Cultural Studies; Cultural Differeaces; ForeignCountries; Infancy; * Infant Behavior; *InteractionProcess Analysis; Aicthers; *Parent Child,Relationship; *Parebt Influence; Reactive Behavior;Research; *Speech Ccumnnication

'IDENTIFIERS- Gusii People; *Kenya; Monadic Phases

ABSTRACT '

This paper describes a ,cross, cultural study of fate.to'face interactions between American and Gusii mothers and theirinfants. Observations of the Gusii people of Western Kenya suggestthat the direct expression of intense affect is de- emphasized' throughan avoipance of tirect face to face interactiona..The ptesent studyinvestigated (1)'hoi'and to what.eitent cultural goals would affectface-to-face mothe;-child interaction and (2) whether:ttere would beuniversal or species specific aspects pf this interaction. Duringvideotaped sessions with 10 Gusii infants and their mothers theinfant was placed `in an infait seat and the mother.was"iestructed,to.:talk with or play with the btfbrand to.qet,the baby's attention. .Datawere analyzed according to a system developed'Oretriously"for similarAmerican research studies. In the American research, seven clustersof interactive behaviors (termed monadic phases) had heed defined andscaled according to, degree of attention and positive to fiegatilie .

affect. Results indicated that these_munadic phases were', structurallysisilar across these.twb cultures. At another level, however, typicalGusii patterns emerged. These patterns, appear to_ encourage a steadypositive state of infant arousal. American mothers appear to'encourage more variability in infant behavior. Results suggeit thatwhile the structure of the interactions is similar,_ the sequencing: ,

and timing varies, reflecting cultural differences in the mothers.'shapiU4 0E, infant behavior. (BD)

Documents acquired by ERIC include many infoimal unpublished materials not atailable from other sources. ERIC makes everyeffort to obtain the best copy available. Neverthele!ss, items, of -marginal' reproducibility are -often encountered and this affects, thequality of the microfiche and hancopy.reproductioni ERIC makes available via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS).EDRS is nOt responsible fgr-1ihe quality of the original document keproductisms supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from,.. the original.

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S DEP.ARTMENT OF HEAlTii, EDUCATION WELFAIlli ?

- NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ,

EDUCATION

THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN Aff PRO-DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVE FROMTHE PERSON OR ORGANIZATIONATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR CM071ONSSTATED DO NOT NECESSARILYAf PRESENT OF FiCIAL NATION INSTITUTE OFEDUCATION POSITION OR POL{0 .

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3

THE STRUCTURE 0 iNiANT-ADULT SOCIAL RECIPROCITY-

A CROSS CULTUJUDY Or FACETO rACE 1NTEhACTI0N:-

1AFANTS ANVMOTIIMISi

Constance H. Keefer, M.D., Suzanne D. Dixon, M.D.,Edward tranicx,ph.D. and T. Berry hrazelton, M.D.

0Child Development UnitChildren's hOspital Aedical Center

TBostont Massachusetts 02115"

,

. 11111), Presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, ,'New Orleans,

March 1977

tr)i .

This reeearch wae supported.by grant8 from the National Scienci Foundation,0 the Robert Wood Johnson Foundatiion and the.Grantwoundation..., ,

CA MATERIAL, HAS BEEN GRANTED BY.

"PERMAION TO REPRODUCE THISr.

1:61 Ctrisianc;.. 14 . ieetievi

TO TIME EDUCATION EsouRcesINFoFsmATioh CENTER ERIC) ANDUSERS QF THE*RIC SYSTEM

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INTRODUCTION,I

tudiesof the interactions betweed American infant -adult pairs in -

a face to face play situation indicate that as early as six weeks of

age the infant is an active 'participant in the reciprocal affective

communication which occurs.;1

The'infants.also demonstrate by thatrage an ability to adopt, their interactional styles"t5different adults,

e.g. mothert father and stranger.2') The compelling nature of these

findings'of infant capacities and early affective communication led us .

to look at this situation in another culture. We had an opportunity to

do so among the Gusii people of Western Kenya. Certain characteristics

of the Gusii made them a particularly interesting culture with regard to

the face to face situationA

The:Gusii are a Bantu-speaxing agricultural community of the nign-

lands-of Westeradenya. An important goal for adult personality among

the Gusii de-emphasizes the direct expeession of intense affect. One of

the ways in tinicn ed:.cted is through an avoidance of direct' face_.

to_face communication. A typical adult-adult interaction occurs with

averted gaze. Conversations frequently occur with the participants at

a 900,or greater angle to eacn other. Whedever we would enter a Gusii

yard, chairs.were set out for ourselves and any men -and older women.'

They would invariably be placed in a seemingly, haphazard pattern'aat

had the effect of decreasing the possibility of speaxing face to face

to another adult. Indeed, between certain sex and generation gaps,

fathers-in-law and daugnters-in-law, for example, direct, face to Lice

exchanges were prohibited. '

4

This is in marked contrast to our own culture's emphasis on face to

face encounters and our sometimes belief in them as universally necessary

for affective.communicatiOn.

We assumed that t.he,socialization

be shaped by tbe.goalsfor adults. By

to face inieraction in a culture with

processes for Gusii infants would

looking at tne earliest Of-face

such different goals from ours

we hoped to begin to answer two questions: 1) how and to what extentF

I ))

.4.

\l'albladlLthese cultural

and 2) ymalcy.here be virsal or speciesspecific aspects of the

interaction, presum4 reflecting a-biologically based system for0

communication.

I

influence or be reflected in tae interaction;-..

METHODS: '-

Videotap

ten Gusii ii2

4,slf face to face- interactionswas done on a grqup pf

and their mothers. These mothers and=infants,w\ ere

part of a larger /longitudinal study of f-developient and child rearing_.

practice*. 05(tlarger project, called the: Child Research Project, was'r

conceived 4 headed by'Robeft LeVin&, Ph.D., Roil.. Larson ProfessorFr

of Educates, ivard University.

The nits and their"familieshad been selected based-aft

demogra dfaracteristies, including religidn, economicC

geographiplocation. I.n addition to the face to face Ida

obstel?and nutritional informationion the mothers -w

pedia&rc and Brazelton examinations in the newborn p

datuaaMetic observations in the homes, and cognitive

neAfifteen aonths.

.7,'Because of the climate

eo Vie filming was done out

te being temperate and tropical; kisii distri

lsiil'being located 50 miles south of the equator,

t7, of -6,O0U.feet. During the rainiieason some fi

balding in the market, place which was also used

medical care. In'a typical outdoor filming 4kr

the infant: was seated in an American infant sda

or kneeling in front .of him.' One assistant ste

#MOther held a tarpalon to block the.,suntight'

thevideotape.'illeassistant also''held up a

maheesimage. This' allowed the use of one_

od

representative,

status and

We gathered

pregnant,

sting

and

over the

old living arrangements f the Gusii, most

of doors at the homes o the subjects. Tae

the home of the

and at an eleation

was done in a

face to' face view of both dfother sad infant::

.1,

s a clinid for pioviding

gement,

with"the motner seated

'ed the infant" chair and

or bettdr resolution on.

rror which reflected the

eo cdmera'to record a

Figure 1 demonstrates what

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the camera saw.

The mothers were instructed in this situation, as in the Americah,

3

laboratory situation,. to "talWAo your baby," "play with your baby,"

"oget your baby's attention." The videotape6 were analyzed by's,coring

behavioral phases for ;Lotheraaa infant. The American studies had,led

to the development of a system of analysis by ynich tne floi of the

interaction could be divided into segments of identifiable behavior

clusters or phases displayed by each interaction. ,The evolution of

this system is described in more detail in the piper by Tronicx.5..

The behavioral clusters identified are termed monadicpnaSes.' Seven

were defined for mother and infant: 1) Avoid/Protest,,2) Avert,

Monitdr, 4) Elicit, 5) Set, 6) Play, 7) Tali. Eacn monadic pnaie has

apecific, mutually exclusive behavioral descriptors., Examples of the4

descriptors for pla and Aversion phases for mother- "and infant are

shown in Figure 2. The phases, as shown in leigure constitute the.continua of degree of attention to the interaction (7 > 1), and

positive to negative affect (7 to 1). Thisreystem,was luseoCto analyze

the Gusii tapes by identifying the monadic phase for motner and infant

for each second of interaction,

FINDINGS:

The first finding Was striking`to us in light of the avoidance and

prohibition of face to face encounters among the Gusii. The Gusii,

mothers told is it was "silly to talk to a baby." however, when faced

with their infanta in tL.is s-tuation, the behavior of both infant and

mother showed a form and content which was adequately oaptured'by the

monadic phases. Those phases having been derived from'observatiohs on

a different culture. In other words, the structural units of behavioral'

displays were the same as thosef seen in the American pair interaction's:

) The mothers used the same xirlde of modificationi of adult beheior

observed in many other cultures, modifications which seem particularly

relevant to an interaction with a ioiang infant. These modifications

4

have been desctibed and, categorized by Tronicc, Als and Adamson.° They

'include 1) state setting activities such as adjusting and supportine- .

the, infant; 2) activities designed to provide aconstant focus-of

attention, such as tapping, continuOuerhythadc talking and'head nodding;

thd 3Vqinfantelizedwor "ba4fied" changes in behavior. An example

of babyfied speech is high-pitched, slOweciand presented in ei,

burst-

'pause rWthm,,,and baByfied novementsare those Wnere mot.ier moves ii

close to the infant and moves heZ head norizontelly and Vertically.

his conarmity -suggests that interactions of adults-and infants have

S universal base underlying 'cultural variations.

, In the next two segments of film of two Gusii motheZ-infant pairs'

you can see'sose of these behavioral displays and modifications. Eacn

segment.is two minutes in length. The first infant is a 103 day old

boy, the fifth child to iiie-impther. The filiabegins-tpirty seconds into

the interaction. The infant maintains a nigh positive state. Movinas,

between the monadic phases of play and set, reaching periods Of

0vocalization near the end.' The motAer,uses babyfied vocalizations and

an almost continuous three per second tapping rhythm.

The second film is of.s,85 day 'old girl, the fourth child of her

mother. The infant again demonstrates an even, positive state, doing

more vocalizations than the first. The Anther 'uses her voice.alicoAT

continuously for state setting and focusing the- child's attention.: The._

infant has developed hiccups during the interaction. The motner uses

her hand and voice to support and alert thinfant through the

episodes; however she does not interr4pt her continuous-rhythmic voice,

but rather uses it, by changing the inflection...to-isse back intq a4

higher leiel of interactiofil, \ ,-

,These Ulm snow.th6 mothers and infAnts using what we think may

be universal characteristics of adult-infaht reciprocal 'communication,

in:theflsm of 'the ionanic pnases or basiO structural units. The films

em'also d strata our- second finding. At another level, they show, -

characteristics 'reach were .typical within the Gusii .sample and different

from the American. It is in the sequencing and timing of the display

6

-5-

units that these typical Gusii patterns emerge. It appears that this

_,_petterning may reflect cultUral influence".

aiguri-4 illustrates the Monadic phase `analysis o1 these two

interactions. Some of these typical Gusii patterns may be deen'graphiCally,

by tnis analyiis.i)

- The infants' curves demoniffate their Steady, moderately-high level

st e. That is, they move among the three highest states, relatively

frequ tly, but beldop,it even; below that. TheAothers make more

chartges, the changes they make are freOntly rapid and large. For

.,/example,.the first mother sometimes moves, iithin*a period of two seconds,

from. talking - to aversion - and batk to talking again. The Mjki-tr's

changes occur during periods of high steady state fOr the infant.' 'While,-

the infant sometimes responds by decreasing his level'of intensity and

involvement, it is:seldod to a leis than neutral State.

The next segment of film - thirty seconds taken from the first

interaction we saw -shows this graphic representation in actir. Mother

and infant nave built to a high, level of exchange of vocalizations and -`

play. The infant begini to laugh, mot her follows with increased

vocalizations and then laughs hetself. :Her'gggles seem truly spontaneous

and somewhat out-Of cUntrol. She then averts by looking in the mirror; on

return to the interaction they build again and she breaks it again by4

looking'away, into.the mirror.

It looked, to us as it the=mothermight be using this pattern of ,

rafrid, large.thanges to cd -ntrol the interaction, both maintainidg a ,

moderately high positive state., but not allowing muoh _peak intensity'

involvement for either 'partner: The Gusii mothers of .our sample gave

u4 someconfirmatiamof this interpretation. On viewing,this film they

stated that Teresia, the mother, giggled not just out of enjoyment but

out Of embarrass- ment at her son, Magoma, becoming too excited and carried

away in public._ We may assume they were also talking about Teresia.

It appears- then that cultural standards for adult interaction are

being reflected in-this adult-infant,, interactidh through-;the patterni4

of behavioral units. In our culture, face to face 'interactions are'valued

as a method of communicating affect. In our American motherinfant pairs

we see the monadic phases se enced to produce frequent peak reciproOal,

involvement. The Gusii, on t other hand, deemphasize and prohibit

facet() face_ encounters for of ective communication,. ln'their mother-

'infant interactions we see the;same behavioral units being'used to

produce even positiyestatis in the infant, without so Much of tne peak

and valley effect seenin the American interactions.

I have emphasized the influence of culture on the mother's role.

We think we see the culture *fleeted in the infant's role, too. During_ .

the face to face interaction the maintenance of even, positive states in

the face of large rapid changes by the motner is impressive and typical.

In our observations of these infants in tneir homes-we saw the same sort

of state modulation infants of this age seldom cried intensely; they

maintained long periods of quiet positive alert states. 1 would like

to highlight more clearly this effect on'the infant as we saw it in)a. .

different situation.- That situation is one .we call "the still face;"

that is, we instruct the mother to assume the

not to interact witn thq infant.?

The next minute of film-will contrast an

The American infant, an 82 day old boy, is seen first.

Within fifteen seconds he has greeted his mother, recognized-the

violation and then gone. on for the remainder of the interaction which

lasts two minutes to interspearse a few eliciting attempts in a gradual

process of withdrawal aim' decreasinglePositive affect.

The Gusii infant is the Magoma you have seen in interaction. Magoma

apparently recogni -zed the change in his mother, too, within fifteen seconds;

he spends that time monitoring his mother. Then he gradually turns his

face to face posture, but

American and Gusii infant.

filutral to slightly positive attention to another-tasc, examining the.

Side of his chair.' At no time does he overtly attempt to elicit his

mother into an interaction.

The two, babieS by three months of age have found different methods of

4

Coping with a non interactive face to fad& sitLuation. The differences

seem to reflect their separate cultures'' goals and attitudes.r

It would appear then that a face to face situation for reciprocal

affective expression occurs with -some varthility-in frequency_froarone

,oulture to another, reflecting variations in the significance attached

to the situation. Despite these variations and even extremes, in

frequency, when the situation does Occur, the units of behavioral display

are similar across cultures.

Those aspects of the interaction which reflect cultural influences

.are the sequence arid timing of these behavioral units. Hence, in the

Gusii society which de-emphasized face to face., the patterning of the

interaction shows a mother making frequent cnanges in state including

aversion from the infant, seemingly to allow his maintenance of a

positive, `but highly mod4.tated state.. The face tot ,face setting may be

one area-in which the infant learns to become a member of his culture.

For us this means that what goes on in the face to face situation can

reflect both universal and culture- specific influences on development.

I.

9

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Brazelton, T.B., Tronick, E., Adamson, L., Als, h., and Wise, S.Early Mother-Infant, peciprocity:4 in: Parent- Infant Interaction,Ciba Foundation Symposium 33 (new Aeries). Amsterdam: AssociatedScientific Puilisners,' 1975..

2; Togmano M., Dixon% S., Tronick, LI Adamson, L., Also'h., and'T; Fathei-lnfant Interaction. Paper presented to

American Pediatric Society - Society for Pediatric nesearch.St. Louis, April, 1976.,

'Dixon; 5.ftog:flan, M., Tronick, E., Adamson, 115., and

irazelton, T.B. Early Social interaction of Infants with Parentsand Strangers. Paper presented to American Academy of Pediatrics,Chicago, October, 1976.

4. IeVine, 4. and LeVine B. HYansongo; A Gusii Community. From-Whiting,B.B. (ed.) Six Cultures Series, New Iorx: Wiley, Tibib.

5. Tronick, E., .1s, and .razelton, T.B. The Structure of Face to`Face Interaction:and its Developmental Functions. Paper presentedat Society-for alsearch in Child Development, New Orleans, March,1977.

406. Ttonick, t., Als, h., and Adamson, L. Stiucture of Early Face to

Face ComOunicitive Interactions. In Before bpeech: tne beginningsof human communication. M. Bullowa (ed.), Cambridge; CambridgeUniversity Press, 19171 in-press.

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7. Tronick, E., Adamson, L., Wise, S., Als, h., and Brazelton, T.B.The Infant's Response to Entrapment between Contradictory Messagesin Face to Face Interaction. Journal of the American Academy of Childs

Psychiatry, 1977, in press.'

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Infant

, Figure 2

AVIRSION (2)

Neutral to ftegative affect, butnot crying or fussing;,

'-Gazi away from mbtner;

Posture neutral to slumped;Mead position variable:

a) fully to part-side away withor without fOcused attention

melsewhere;b) any'position, totally involved

in object or hand play.

Infant

Affect greater than neutral;head and gaze totally oriented to mothet;Posture upright;Face-variables, from simple smile

to coo face;

Vocalizations variable, from noneto positive vocalizations to 'laugh;

Movement variable, from none to largelimb movements. _

IMother

, Neutral to negative affect;Gaze away from infant;Distance medium to far back;

- head position variable, towardto part -side away;

Vocalizations variable:a) none to infant;

.b) may or may not vocalize tar)another adult

'Contact with infant variable,none to simple touch.

PLAY (6)

12

Mother

Affect greater tnan neutral;Body head and gaze Tully orientedtonf ant;

Vocalizations variable, from noneto low burst pause arrative,playful-stern or non-verbal'sounds and laugh;

.

Ceritact with infant Variable, fromnone to simple touch or tapping.,

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4."

ork

-

Attention tothe Interaction

Engagod .

I

.

to

Oriented

'1_ !---

Vengaged

Fisgure 3

. 1

Monadic PhaseA

Talk

-6. Play

,5. 4et .

4. Elicit

3. Monitor

2. Aversion

Avoid/Protest4 , .

',Affective.. t

Posiitive

to

Negative

Pr, 13

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